https://www.pca.org/news/2017-05-04/whats-driving-entry-level-air-cooled-porsche-market

The odometer never worked from the time of purchase.

I read up on a few web pages first on how to do this job as these are expensive parts that you don’t want to damage. Pelican cover the repair and there is a few youtube videos on the repair of similar odometers but not exactly the 912E odometer.

I first prized off the front bezel using a flat scewdriver, took out the main bezel then the thin inner bezel plus the lens cover. Removing the screws at the back of the main housing I was able to take out the mechanism, although I left the wires in place which gave me little room for working. Next thing I did was remove the two front screws keeping the gauge plate on. DO NOT REMOVE the needle. Removing the needle requires the speedometer to be calibrated and this requires specialised equipment.

Removing the electric motor then makes it easier to separate the gauge plate from the white housing, this has to be done slow because the guage plate must be kept safely in place without pulling off the needle or damaging it. With the white housing off I was able to remove the circlips and gears and install my new gear. The gear was very tight on the shaft which led me to believe it got hot from all the years of turning, I snipped the gear with a pliers to get it off and the residue could be seen on the shaft. I cleaned this off with a bit of emery clothe.

With the new gear in place I then slowly and carefully re-assembled the motor, housing and front guage plate and installed it back into the main housing. I gave the bezels a new lick of satin black paint and installed it back into the dashboard for a test. I didn’t secure the bezel permanently back on until I was sure everything worked – I took if off so that when I re-assembled it was a bit tight anyway so it was secure enough for testing.

I am happy to report that the odometer works again so I’ll remove it to secure the bezel. Next job will be to touch up the rest of the bezels on the other gauges.

While driving one evening I switched on the lights and within seconds smoke started billowing into the cabin from the dash. I quickly pulled over and tried to figure out where the smoke was coming from and I could see a red hot wire coming from the light switch so I pulled out the connector on the bulk head. A few days earlier I pulled out the dash illumination bulb for the fuel gauge which was not working and the live must have sprung forward and touched off the ground. After some investigation I found the the circuit is not fused so this needs to be fixed. The plastic around the cable had melted completely and melted other cables running next to it. I had to pull out the heater box and hoses and pull apart the cables and tape up damaged wires. I replaced the damaged cable and got it all taped up again. It could have been very bad if it had caught fire.

I had another issue yesterday when after driving for five seconds the car went dead and would not start. I checked the fuel and then started to see if the spark plugs were getting a spark. With Niall looking at the distributor while I was turning it over he noticed that the lobe rider of the points had cracked and wasn’t breaking contact. I had a spare pair of points so we swappeed them out and it started up again.

After getting the tail pipe cut and re-welded by Alan Coughlan in Riverstick I was able to fit the rear apron. I needed to pull it out so that it wouldn’t touch the muffler section. I noticed that one of the pushrod tubes is leaking a nice bit of oil so I will need to look at this at some stage. Otherwise it’s pretty much complete now.

Location: Cork Docks

I took the Porsche to the Rock & Rumble Car Show in Cork city on Saturday. This show was organised by the Great American Steel Car Club. I dropped off the car early as I had to go to do some business and came back around 3pm to find the sticker on the window to say it was the category winner of best Porsche. Needless to say I was stoked! There were about 15-20 other Porsche cars there, the majority from Porsche Club Ireland. There were lots of interested enthusiasts asking about the car, they all knew the car and were all very complimentary of it. One guy said he was happy to see I re-used the old hood badge and didn’t go buying a new one. Interestingly the ZT 911 registration on the 911S is an authentic Irish registration. He told me that the car was brought in from England around 1987. As a private individual you couldn’t import cars and had to go through a business entity. The registration process didn’t exist either so the previous owner must have sweet talked the registration office to give him a nice number. It’s a 1930’s registration supposedly and the owner was pretty much allowed to choose any old un-used registration number that he wanted.

 

On the downside after taking the car for an evening drive with the dipped lights on the battery went dead. I did notice the starter struggling occasionally during day drives so I suspect it is getting a minimal charge but not enough. I need to so some trouble shooting this week. Also the gear shifting isn’t great, first gear is difficult to get in most of the time and third gear gives a crunch most of the time also. In hind sight I should have rebuilt the transmission but I’ll drive on for the summer and maybe rebuild it this winter.

I fitted the exhaust in place with the spacers and gaskets in position and spot welded the tubes from the outside using the MIG welder in the garage. I then brought it out to a friend to do the stainless steel welding using a SS TIG welder. He also welded on the brackets for extra support just like the original OEM exhaust. I fitted it up to the engine and it fitted perfectly! There is enough space between the exhaust and tinware and it’s level, solid and secure. I fired up the engine to hear how it sounded and it’s quieter then the Bursch. The rear bumper apron doesn’t fit with the funny angle of the exhaust tip so I will need to get that altered in-situ.